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San Francisco's Mayor Says the Homeless 'Have to Leave the Streets' to Make Way for a Super Bowl Fun Zone

"We are always going to be supportive. But you are going to have to leave the streets."
Drew Schwartz
Brooklyn, US
Photo via Flickr user Franco Folini

Read: Reasons Why San Francisco Is the Worst Place Ever

About six months from now, tens of thousands of people are going to flock to San Francisco for Super Bowl 50, turning the already overcrowded, extremely expensive tech mecca into a fucking nightmare. When they're not raising hell and chugging $12 beers inside the Levi's Stadium, all those sports fans will be encouraged to hang out in Super Bowl City—a massive "interactive theme park" being built near Market Street.

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Problem is, the future site of Super Bowl City is currently filled with a bunch of homeless people, and Mayor Ed Lee isn't about to put up with that shit. Instead, he said, the city's homeless "are going to have to leave."

"We'll give you an alternative," Lee told CBS affiliate KPIX 5 . "We are always going to be supportive. But you are going to have to leave the streets."

The city is planning to debut some new programs for the homeless and construct about 500 new apartments in time for the Super Bowl in February, but the plan sounds a little vague and difficult to pull off in a handful of months. Still, the mayor insists, the city's vagrants have to GTFO.

The Super Bowl host committee has a different, equally-bizarre plan to help with the homeless population: get so many people doing shit in Super Bowl City that there's not enough room for the homeless within its walls.

"All around here we are going to have entertainment—family-friendly activities that will keep it vibrant and crowded," the committee's Nate Ballard said. "We're going to have 24/7 security."

As anyone who's spent about five minutes in Times Square can tell you, crowds and entertainment aren't some magical homeless repellant, but the mayor and the host committee are sticking to their guns.

Mayor Lee plans to enlist several local departments—from the SFPD to social services—to help keep homeless people out of the public eye.

"They can't be on the streets," Lee said. "Not just because it is illegal, but because it is dangerous for them."